Latest Travelocity Promotion Offers Travelocity PriceGuardian on Vacation Packages
Fri ,31/07/2009Business Wire, March 17, 2009
Also Announces No Travelocity Booking Fees on All Domestic and
International Flights During Promotion
SOUTHLAKE, Texas — Travelocity today announced its âFee-Free, Worry-Free Travelâ promotion
that eliminates Travelocity flight booking fees for all domestic and
international flights and also includes Travelocity PriceGuardianSM for
vacation packages, to help anxious travelers with an age old dilemma:
âWhat if the price drops after I book my trip?â With Travelocity
PriceGuardian, when a customer buys a vacation package with Travelocity
between now and May 31, 2009, and another Travelocity customer later
books the same vacation package at a lower price before the trip,
Travelocity will automatically refund the difference to the customer,
from $10 up to $500.
As the economy has softened, flight hotel vacation packages have
become more popular with value-conscious consumers. Travelocity research
shows that customers save on average $315 on a vacation package versus
booking the same flight and hotel separately. Given consumersâ concerns
that prices may drop closer to the time of travel, Travelocityâs
promotion takes away the worry. It is the first time this kind of
service has been available from an online travel company on vacation
packages.
âWhen a customer is about to buy a vacation package that will likely
cost thousands of dollars versus a few hundred dollars on a flight, itâs
important for them to have that added peace of mind,â said Tracey Weber,
president, Travelocity North America. âVacation packages have gained in
popularity in the present economic environment and we think Travelocity
PriceGuardian will only add to their appeal.â
Travelocity PriceGuardian is part of Travelocityâs âFee-Free, Worry-Free
Travelâ promotion that ends on May 31, 2009. Also as part of this
promotion, Travelocity is not charging Travelocity booking fees on all
domestic and international flights
LEGAL EXPENSES INSURANCE: Where to next?
Thu ,30/07/2009Insurance Brokers’ Monthly and Insurance Adviser, Jul 2007 by Haynes, David
In an attempt to curb spiralling legal costs in personal injury claims, the Ministry of Justice is pressing for reform. To that end, on 20 April the MOJ published a Consultation Paper on the reform of the process of personal injury claims within England and Wales. Arag’s David Haynes considers the angles
The Ministry of Justice reforms aim to strike a balance between reducing legal costs and speeding up settlements, while retaining a sense of fairness to all parties involved. To help achieve this the MOJ is seeking responses to its proposals by the 13 July 2007.
In attacking the problem, the initial proposal suggests the Small Claims limit should remain at its current level of £1,000, despite serious consideration being given to raising this to £2,500 or £5,000, or a level in line with inflation since 1991. This was to avoid the undesirable likelihood of an increase in the number of claimants pursuing their own claims without legal representation.
The second proposal is that the Fast Track limit should be increased from £15,000 to £25,000. This would enable a relatively small number of claims to be allocated to the quicker lower track timetable resulting in cost savings.
But probably the most contentious and radical of all the proposals concerns a new claims process completely. The intention is to provide early notification of claims to defendant insurers, promote early admissions of liability and remove duplications of work.
While these are commendable objectives – and broadly supported by all interested stakeholders – the proposals expect to achieve this by delaying costs to a much later stage than at present. This potentially undervalues the importance of claimant solicitors in screening claims that ultimately develop into genuine submissions to defendant insurers. The danger being that without it, there would be a real risk that the number of spurious or fraudulent claims would jump, and that defendant insurers would be inundated with extra investigations for sub-standard claims. Paradoxically, it is probably in the defendant’s interest that claimant lawyers should be involved in preparing the claim as soon as possible.
Much of the above depends on defendant insurers being able to respond to the strict and ambitious time-scales which will need to be followed